Conventionally, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 2001-264340 discloses a specimen processing apparatus for passing an aspiration tube through a cap for sealing a specimen container so as to aspirate a specimen from the specimen container and process the aspirated specimen. There are plural specimen containers with different dimensions and shapes which can be used in the specimen processing apparatus. For example, there are specimen containers of different cap thicknesses, specimen containers with different distances from an opening at the upper end thereof to an inner bottom surface, and the like. Accordingly, it is demanded to be able to perform a proper specimen aspirating operation according to specimen containers even when such different specimen containers are used together.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 2001-264340 discloses a specimen analyzing apparatus for jabbing an aspiration tube into an airtight container so as to aspirate blood and analyze the aspirated blood. In the specimen analyzing apparatus, a bar-code including specimen discriminating information and container type information is adhered to a side face of the airtight container, and a movement distance of the aspiration tube in accordance with the type of the specimen container is determined on the basis of the container type information read by a bar-code reader.
However, in general, the type of the information recorded in the bar-code is determined in accordance with institutions such as inspection centers or hospitals where the specimen analyzing apparatuses are installed, and it is necessary to change a code scheme of the bar-code in the institutions in order to introduce the specimen analyzing apparatus described in the above Japanese Patent Publication No. 2001-264340. Such a change in the code scheme of the bar-code significantly affects other systems. For example, it is necessary to change other systems in the institutions so as to be suitable for the code scheme.